Bulgaria prioritizes gas links with Greece, Romania

Bulgaria should work to complete the interconnectors linking its gas transportation networks with Greece and Romania, the EU Commission spokesperson for Specific Energy Union Projects has said.

Jakub Adamowicz's comments for the Bulgarian National Radio follow assurances on behalf of Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova that the link with Romania will be up and running later this year.

Sofia and Athens are separately working together to conduct market tests for the forthcoming Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) that authorities hope to kickstart construction within months.

The EU hopes to see the gas systems of the three countries linked to enable priority gas projects such as Slovakia-backed Eastring.

Adamowicz has thus dashed Sofia's hopes that its Balkan Gas Hub project would get support from Brussels in the short term, saying Bulgaria has to go through the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) of the EU.

"Interconnectors have to be operational and to conduct reverse flow. This is very important from the perspective of flexibility, as it, to a large extent, provides guarantees of supply."

"It is only after that that we believe projects which were not included in the strategic list can begin to be built," he has added.